Jay Allen
Encyclopedia
Career
Between 1925 and 1934, he was a correspondent for the Chicago TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. In 1930 he met important leaders of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE): Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín y López was a Spanish politician and physician.-Early years:Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Negrín came from a religious middle-class family...
, Luis Araquistáin
Luis Araquistáin
Luis Araquistáin Quevedo was a Spanish politician and writer. Member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from a young age, he belonged to the circle of Largo Caballero and Tomás Meabe, of whom he was a close friend.In 1932 he was named ambassador to Germany and in September 1936 ambassador to...
, Julio Álvarez del Vayo
Julio Álvarez del Vayo
Julio Álvarez del Vayo was a Spanish Socialist politician, journalist and writer....
, Rodolfo Llopis
Rodolfo Llopis
Rodolfo Llopis Ferrándiz was a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in exile from 1944 to 1972....
in Spain. He also knew important leaders of the Spanish right such as José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo was a Spanish politician prior to and during the Second Spanish Republic...
and José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...
. In 1934 he covered the uprising in Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
for the Chicago Tribune. He was briefly imprisoned because he helped to hide some socialist leaders from the police. After his release he went to live in Torremolinos
Torremolinos
Torremolinos is a municipality on the Costa del Sol of the Mediterranean, immediately to the west of the city of Málaga, in the province of Málaga in the autonomous region of Andalusia in southern Spain...
and over the next two years traveled across Spain to gather information for a book about the agrarian problem in Spain.
Spanish civil war
When the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
started, he covered the conflict for the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. In July 1936 he interviewed general Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
(leader of the rebels and future dictator of Spain).
Allen was the first American journalist to report on the massacre of Badajoz
Massacre of Badajoz
The massacre of Badajoz occurred in the days after the Battle of Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War. Between 1,341 and 4,000 civilian and military supporters of the Second Spanish Republic, were killed by the Nationalist forces following the seizure of the town of Badajoz on August 14,...
. On 23 August 1936, nine days after the fall of the city, he entered Badajoz
Badajoz
Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid–Lisbon railway. The population in 2007 was 145,257....
and saw the executions taking place. On 30 August the Chicago Tribune published its report on the massacre: “Slaughter of 4,000 at Badajoz, city of horrors”, the first report about it in the United States. As a result, the nationals put a price on his head and the supporters of the Nationals in the States started a campaign against Allen. In November 1936 he interviewed the chief of Spanish falange José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...
who was imprisoned in Valencia
Valencia (province)
Valencia or València is a province of Spain, in the central part of the Valencian Community.It is bordered by the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Cuenca, Teruel, Castellón, and the Mediterranean Sea...
. It was the last interview before his execution. After that, Allen returned to the United States.
Second World War and after
In 1940 he went to France as a correspondent for the North American Newspaper AllianceNorth American Newspaper Alliance
The North American Newspaper Alliance was a large newspaper syndicate that flourished between 1922 and 1980.Founded by John Neville Wheeler, NANA employed some of the most noted writing talents of its time, including Grantland Rice, Joseph Alsop, Michael Stern, Lothrop Stoddard, Dorothy Thompson,...
. There he helped to organize a group to help French artists to flee the country. Because of this the Gestapo arrested him in 1941, although he was later freed. In 1942 he took part in the campaign of north África. After that, he returned to America and worked for various newspapers until his death in 1972.